Structure and physical properties of single crystal PrCr2Al20 and CeM2Al20 (M=V, Cr): A comparison of compounds adopting the CeCr2Al20 structure type

Crystal growth and full structure determination of compounds adopting the CeCr2Al20 structure type, LnTi(2)Al(20) (Ln=La-Pr, Sm, and Yb), LnV(2)Al(20) (Ln= La-Pr, and Sm), and LnCr(2)Al(20) (Ln=La-Pr, Sm, and Yb), are reported. Resistivity, magnetic susceptibility, and heat capacity of flux grown single crystals of the nonmagnetic CeM2Al20 (Ln=Ce, Yb; M=Ti, V) compounds are compared to PrCr2Al20. Of particular interest is PrCr2Al20 which does not show any phase transition down to the lowest temperature of the measurement (400 mK in resistivity measurement and 1.8 K for magnetic susceptibility measurements) and exhibits Kondo behavior at low temperatures. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.